Report of round 5 - CCT 2009

Karjakin In Sole Lead

If it’s Van Wely - Radjabov, then it has to be a King’s Indian Bayonet attack. This is the sixth time the two have dueled in this line. Van Wely: “We have a principled discussion in this variation, and our score is now 3-3. Radjabov has been scoring quite a few wins in this line, and I see to be the only one to bother him in it”. He went on to say that by now it is “matter of honor” to keep this up, and if not the most practical choice. Loek deviated first from their game in the Olympiad (playing 10.Re1 instead of 10.g3), not waiting for any novelties from the Azeri. The Dutchman’s 13.Rb1 (on the suggestion of his second GM Chuchelov) followed a 2003 game between Ponomariov and Radjabov, and only 20.h4!? was new. Radja’s 21...gxh4 was a “big step in the wrong direction” (Van Wely), he should have tried 20...Nxe6. Matters got even worse when black eschewed 23...Nh7!? in favor of 23...Kg8?!, since now white had the very unpleasant 24.Qh3!, forcing the trade on h6. When 26.Re3! (see diagram 1) appeared on the board, it became clear the black’s king is on the critical list, for example 26...cxd5 27.Rg3+ Kf7 28.exd5 with a decisive attack. The game continuation was no better for black, and after 28.exd5 he didn’t have 28...Nf4 as after 29.Rxf4! if 29...exf4 30.Bg6 is mate. A very impressive showing from the local favorite!

Another loss for the off-form Morozevich, this time against the ambitious Dominguez. In a well known Najdorf middlegame position, the Russian introduced the new (and suspicious) 12...b4?! and entered a line where white was nursing a small and steady advantage. After 20.Ba7! black already had some serious problems, which he could not solve. Maybe at some moment he should have taken the g5 pawn with check, and later sacrifice the exchange, as in the game he found himself down a pawn with a worse position. 35.Nf5! (see diagram 2) was the final clincher, completing a surgeon-like job by the Cuban.

Karjakin won against Stellwagen after trying a very interesting new idea in the Taimanov. 13.Qf2 and 14.Bc5!? (see diagram 3) sent black to the think tank, and for a while Daniel was playing the best moves. He cleverly solved his king’s precarious position by sacrificing an exchange for a pawn - a decision that gave him enough compensation for the material. Soon however, time pressure raised its ugly head for the Dutchman, and things started to go wrong. 31...Ne4! aiming for Nc3 would have been better than 31...Rc8, later 33...e5 at once was necessary, and finally on the last move of the time control, 40...Bc6! was needed to stop white’s rook penetration (and if 41.Rb6 e4!, defending). After the time control was reached, white was already better, and with the trade of the black rook (45...Ne6 avoiding the pin would have been more stubborn), the rest was simply mopping up by the Ukrainian.

The Aronian - Movsesian encounter quickly entered a known queen-less middlegame out of the Slav, a variation suggested to Levon by his second, GM Rodstein. After the game white said he had forgotten what to do after 11...Nd5 , but was satisfied with his 13.Rd1 and 14.Nd2!? idea. Black would have been wiser not to allow the structurally-weakening capture on c6, playing first 16...Nxa5, and only then 17...Rb8. White’s multipurpose 18.Na5 (see diagram 4) was very annoying, and dominated black’s position. Aronian was not tempted by 24.Nb7?! (his 24.Kf2 was best), as this would have given black the chance to sacrifice an exchange for a lot of play with 24...c4 25.Nd6 c3!. Black’s decline was accelerated when he allowed the advance of the white kingside pawns h4, g4 and g5, and the white pressure quickly netted Levon a pawn. Some mutual inaccuracies in time trouble did not alter the score of 1-0.

Ivanchuk - Carlsen was a short but interesting struggle. The Ukrainian faced a sub-variation of the Ruy, and tried to play against the black queenside pawns. After the game Chuky lamented his 14.c4, saying that he missed black strong switchback 14...Ra8! that leaves black fine. Later he saw black’s pseudo-sacrifice on e4, and thought he’d be much better after it, but then he realized he would not be. Black would play a fast ...Qe8-g6, eyeing h3, and then Rae8 with an excellent position. Therefore 21.Qh5 was played, and the players repeated moves to split the point.

Dutch champ Jan Smeets continues his solid performance. Today he drew against Adams quite comfortably in a theoretical line of the Petroff. White’s 15.Nh4 avoids a long known idea where 15.Qxc7 0-0! leads to a forced draw, but black calmly sacrificed his c7 pawn anyways, cleverly realizing that he will later regain the d4 pawn, and thus equalizing. 24...Kf7 might have been more accurate than what he played in the game, since black avoids getting double pawns on g5, but black was still not in danger. After the game, Jan criticized his 33...a5 (another pawn on a dark square), but when white could not play 35.Qe8 because of 35...Bxf2+!, black entered a totally equal queen ending, and a draw was registered.

The American Gata Kamsky isn’t revealing many opening secrets in this event. Today he opted for the less common 4.Nc4 in the Petroff. White gained the bishop pair, but had to relinquish it by taking on g6 when black completed his development without a hitch, and was ready for Nf4 action. Now the only battleground was the open e-file, and with both players geared up properly and evenly there, it was time for them to shake hands amicably.

GM Group B has a sole leader in Rustam Kasimdzanov, who quickly drew versus Reinderman today and has 3.5/5. He took advantage of losses by his co-leaders Short (to Sasikiran) and Caruana (to Efimenko), who are now in a large group of players with 3 points.

Hillarp Persson is now alone atop GM group C with 4/5, after dispatching of wunderkind Giri in a well played game.

Unsurprisingly, the Sokolov prize was awarded to Van Wely, for his fine showing against Radjabov. As the prize wasn't awarded in round 4, it was now doubled to € 500,--.